Wednesday

Wednesday’s novelty of a homogenous market that had pricesrising in all regions failed to carry over into Thursday. Insteadtrading tendencies reverted to the previous pattern: generallysofter in the East and flat to a little higher at most Westernpoints. The biggest drops of about a dime occurred on theAppalachian pipes.

A lot of cash points came close to matching the screen’s rise ofalmost a nickel Wednesday, give or take a penny or two. In additionto the futures influence, there was “a little bit” of cold here andthere to help generate a modest price rally, though still notenough cold to help much, sources said.

Fresh off Wednesday’s advance the futures market looked poisedto continue higher Thursday as early buying prompted the market upat the open. However, a 25-cent gain in two days was more than eventhe greediest of bulls could handle, and the market reacted bytrending down. That left the November contract with a 1.9 cent lossto settle at $2.414 at the final bell.

The futures market spiked higher in trading Thursday, adding togains posted Wednesday evening as traders pointed to a host ofbullish factors. A “startling storage report,” continuedshort-covering, and a increasing supportive technical picture wereall cited as reasons for the advance. That prompted both theOctober and November contract to 12.5-cent gains, settling at$1.958 and $2.207 respectively.

Atlanta Gas Light Services, the retail marketing subsidiary ofGeorgia LDC Atlanta Gas Light, reached a compromise with retailmarketers and state regulators Wednesday, and agreed to change itsname to Georgia Natural Gas Services. The company will retain theuse of its flame logo, however.

The futures market wasted little time continuing lower yesterdayadding to losses registered Wednesday evening following the releaseof the weekly AGA storage report. That report, showing alarger-than-expected 93 Bcf injection gave storage bears somethingto chew on. The August contract opened near its high then tumbled9.9 cents to settle at $2.132 in active trading yesterday.

Although many signs have been pointing to a major rally infutures prices lately, Wednesday’s trading at the New YorkMercantile Exchange just may put an end to that talk. Aftermanaging to rise above key resistance at $2.50, the spot Augustcontract saw major selling by funds and locals, so much so thatAugust fell to a low of $2.41 before settling the day down 1.9cents at $2.450.

$2.40 gas proved to be too much for July on Wednesday, as thespot futures contract fell 5.5 cents to settle the day at $2.336.July opened at $2.41, but that turned out to be its high trade forthe day as sellers were quick to liquidate positions and takeprofits ahead of the contract’s expiration this Friday.

Producers and other protesters lost a major skirmish Wednesdaywhen FERC accepted with only minor changes Natural GasClearinghouse’s (NGC) contracts for 1.3 Bcf/d of transportationcapacity on El Paso Natural Gas.